Day 7 - Experiencing Life in all Five Senses

– We hope that you enjoy the course today and get a chance to think about or discuss the question at the end with others.

– Just as a general reminder, the course includes general tips and you should absolutely see a medical health professional to understand your specific situation.

– The course is offered by Dr. Kate Witheridge and here she is now. [Dr. Kate Witheridge] So, the point of this is to take something very simple and to really focus on it, right, and the other thing is that I think when we multitask, we don’t even get enjoyment out of things. We’re not paying attention to what we’re eating. We’re not paying attention to what we’re doing. We’re not paying attention to… you know, if I’m walking down the street and I’m thinking about what I have to do at work, I’m not paying attention to the music I’m listening to. I’m not paying attention to the trees or the squirrels. I’m notoriously bad at this. So my true confession is the other night, I was sitting on my couch, had my cell phone out and I was texting somebody. I was on my laptop watching a live video of this guy who’s a trail runner and I was also watching something on TV in mute when, like I wanted to watch that, I would switch them off and at one point, I had both volumes on and I think I was probably eating something at the same time. And it’s like, I was not fully attending to anything, right? But we go through life like that. So, the reason I bring this up and sort of the idea is to like making sure we’re experiencing life in the five senses. Slowing down and doing one thing at a time, whether that’s sort of eating or walking or listening to music or even worrying, like, “Okay, if I’m gonna sit here and worry, let me just do that and not try and do something else.” Right? So, we do actually have a mantra around that, right, but it’s very ideal, like, ‘If you’re reading, just read. If you’re worrying, just worry, like, if I’m gonna worry then I shouldn’t be watching TV and worrying. Let me sit here and actually focus on one thing at a time’. But our tendency is to multitask. We’re told to multitask but often what happens is our brain gets kind of spread, our attention gets spread and we’re not enjoying any one thing, right? One of my other weird quirks about this is that one thing that I hate multitasking is when I’m having dinner with friends and there’s really loud music. Right? As weird as it sounds, I would rather eat in silence than , be like, ‘Theres’s loud music’. And I remember being at a restaurant and it’s like church and sort betweenbut it’s a Japanese restaurant where it’s like loud to begin with and all the staff yell at people as they come and go and they also yell in Japanese. So, I remember being there and feeling stressed because it’s loud and people are yelling and all of a sudden, like, Jeff is trying to eat as fast as possible because it was so overwhelming. Right? So, thinking about strengthening our lives; Can we slow things down? Can we do one thing at a time? I actually do come home after work because I am talking and listening and there’s also a second cup outside of my office and all kinds of other stuff going on, I come home and I sit in silence. I will like, eat in silence, I will drink in silence. In the summer, I don’t turn the lights on so people imagine me sitting alone in the dark, drinking wine but only sometimes off, right? But the idea of doing one thing at a time is sitting and de-stressing. So, really focusing on doing things mindfully will really help with stress. Going back to the title of being president in a world, how can we focus on being in the moment? How can I focus on what I’m eating, what I’m drinking, what I’m doing, what I’m reading to help me feel more present? To help me feel remember, yeah, did I eat? What did I eat? What day is today? Today, did I lock my house when I left? Did I close the windows? This is often how we end up losing things. Like, ‘I don’t remember what I did”. So, try to work on being mindful. [Announcer] Thanks for joining us today as we explored experiencing life in all five senses as part of the stress and anxiety course. Kate mentioned she had a bit of an exercise for you and you’ll have to prepare for this one. You’ll need to find some candy. I know that’s a real hardship but try to find something enjoyable to eat. It doesn’t have to be candy but rather than just gobbling it down, her exercise for you is to spend a few minutes experiencing each sense and how it’s activated by that snack. Just one at a time. Think through, “How does it smell?, How does it taste? How does it feel?”, and so on. So, enjoy the candy and enjoy spending some time just taking care of yourself and we’ll see you tomorrow. Bye for now!

Question: Find some candy. Spend a few minutes experiencing each sense, one at a time.